Cool News
Agent Orange sends in his thoughts on MISSION TO MARS
Hey folks, Harry here with Agent Orange taking a peek at DePalma's MISSION TO MARS. This is a film that I'm really really really looking forward to in that same... edgy kind of 'I Dooooon't know about this' way that I walk into most DePalma films. We don't have long to wait to see for ourselves... but till then, here's Agent Orange...
Hey Harry. Agent Orange here, with my now third scoop. Yay! With all the
recent NASA screwups comes their latest one… lending their name to this
movie! HAHAHA, I’m so funny. But seriously folks, I managed to kick and
bite my way to a Mission to Mars screening, and like the loyal bitch I am to
you, here I am reporting. This time the ‘suits’ didn’t even tell us to not
tell anyone, so my conscience is clear! I will keep spoilers to a minimum,
but a few little things shall be mentioned. For those who don’t know, here’
s the basic premise:
It’s the year 2020 (how typical), the world isn’t much different except for
some neat cars, and oh yeah, man is going to Mars! In the first shot (a
nice long typical DePalma tracking shot) we meet most of our heroes, Gary
Sinise, Don Cheadle, Tim Robbins, Jerry O’Connel and others whose names I
don’t know. Sinise’s wife is dead, he’s depressed, got kicked off the
mission, so Cheadle and his team (3 red shirts, if you know what I mean) go
up instead, get in trouble, red shirts get killed, and the others (Sinise,
Robbins, Robbin’ wife, O’Connol) go up to rescue him, investigate what
happened to Don’s crew, throw in some deaths and drama and action and stuff
about the face on mars and you got yourself a movie. Simple enough.
Fortunately some of the weaker stuff is at the beginning and is over soon,
like painfully non-subtle attempts at character developments and exposition,
all very groan-worthy. Even the usually great Don Cheadle has some cheesy
acting to do here (and didn’t Don used to be scrawny? The guy’s arms are
BIG!). Things start picking up when, after landing on Mars, Don and the
crew come in contact with some Mummy-esque sand FX, in a mildly exciting
scene.
Anyways, for a thing by thing breakdown:
Acting: cheesy at times, but this is definitely a good ensemble who do their
best with the material. Tim Robbins, whom as you can tell by his “and Tim
Robbins” listing in the credits, doesn’t stick around for the entire movie,
but makes it much better by just being there. His mere presence tends to
lift a movie’s quality a little higher (Although, after Arlington Road,
every time he creeps around a corner I expect him to turn into his cheesy
bad guy character). Gary Sinise is good, and surprisingly, the lead lead
(his is the only name before the title, at least in this cut). Kim Delaney,
despite being in the opening credits, has only about one minute of screen
time, all on videotape, since she’s Gary dead wife. Which is too bad, since
she does make you care for the character and feel Sinise’s loss a little
more than when at the beginning they were just talking about her and you
didn’t have a face to put with the name. But that’s probably because she’s
Kim Delaney, and you probably have to watch NYPD Blue to get it. Jerry O’
Connel is the comic relief with a few funny lines, and Armin Muehler-Stall
(I must’ve butchered his name) has a small role and a few hard to understand
lines.
Directing: DePalma is, as always, a good technical director, but lately he’s
been just a gun for hire for projects that don’t seem too personal. Too
bad. Technically the movie looks great, the pace is pretty good and it’s
hardly ever boring.
FX: Not that much significant stuff… lots of Mars scenery, which looks
great, lots of ships, which look good, lots of sand, which looks, well, like
CG sand, and a face on Mars, which looks like, well, crap. But nothing too
exciting. There is one pretty terrible effect…
SMALL SPOILER AHEAD
… the gang end up meeting an alien. And that alien looks terrible. It’s
very cartoony CG, which got a kinda goofy reaction from the audience,
giggles here and there. Me no likey. Sometimes a good old animatronic is
better. And in this case, maybe there shouldn’t really have been an ‘alien’
at all, which you might understand once you see it. As the guy in the seat
behind me commented about the alien (and most of the end), “they looked like
they were on an Epcot Center ride.”
ACTION/SUSPENSE: good, good. Some good action scenes in the vain of Mission
Impossible, like you just know these are the key scenes and some of the rest
just feel like filler until you get to the next action set-piece. There’s
about 3 or 4 good action pieces, including the search for/fixing of leaks
inside the ship and the attempted rescue of Tim Robbins, which did have the
audience on the edge of their seats.
PLOT: I’m tempted to say ‘blah,’ but I must admit there are some original
(to film) ideas presented, they’re just done a bit cheesily. I know I keep
using the word cheesy a lot, but it’s cheesy. Most characters aren’t very
developed and many plot points and ‘discoveries’ depend on huge leaps of
faith made by characters.
I haven’t even seen the trailer to it but I’m told it makes it look like a
2001 ripoff. I can only wish. Other than the spinning space station/ship
(beautiful) and a couple of white, sterile interior scenes at the end, there
are very few 2001 connections.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s probably a lot to like, if you like this sort of
movie. There’s more than a few GORGEOUS trademark DePalma shots, especially
around the space station, and a very charming zero gravity dance number, but
in the end, it’s just another average DePalma movie. It feels a bit like
Snake Eyes… you know there’s a good movie in there somewhere, it just never
surfaces for too long. Grade: C
Well, back to the everyday grind of my consumer-driven life.
Agent Orange
-
+ Expand All
-
Now I can go ahead and kill myself. Good-bye.
-
I SAW THE TRAILER FOR THIS AND IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF KUBRICK AND 2001.I HAVE HIGH HOPES FOR THIS MOVIE AS IT IS DE PALMA'S FIRST SCI FI FILM.ALTHOUGH I AGREE LATELY HE SEEMS TO BE DOING IT MORE FOR THE CASH THAN PREVIOUSLY IN HIS CAREER I STILL ENJOY HIS DRAMATIC USE OF THE CAMERA.MY ONLY CONCERN IS A DE PALMA FILM THAT RECEIVES A PG RATING!!MUST HAVE BEEN IN HIS CONTRACT.
-
I know Harry doesn't like this, but this looks a little bit like "Contact" meets "2001" meets "Apollo 13" meets "Armageddon".... good God, I could go on and on here! But I won't... If this is as good as Snake Eyes (and it wasn't THAT bad, but it held my attention in the way Brian's typical filming style does), it's a must see... especially for Sci-Fi nuts!
-
I'm with you Booth. Leave the heavy lifting to the strongman! De Palma can be phenominal when it comes to inner personal exploration. He starts to lose his grasp when the picture becomes bigger then the story.
-
that this was going to be sub-par. As with Snake Eyes, a good concept and a few cool scenes does not a good picture make. Why I liked Mission: Impossible was probably due to the good actors involved, the confusing plot that kept me guessing, and delivering what Bond since the 70's failed to. But when Agent Orange says there's a good movie in there somewhere, that's a pretty legitimate statement. There are many films people have an affinity for, but can admit contain the materials for a much better film. This is true of more than a few of DePalma's films. A talented man, but not as well-rounded as his superiors in the field.
-
The 2020 date isn't 'typical', it's the next scientifically feasible date for a trip to Mars. The planets are at their closest then in their cycles.
Chances are, there will be a launch in 2019. -
Chances are if we dont get our shit seriously together in the next few years the only thing we'll be sending to mars is another satellite to snap some more pictures. Im 120% for getting our asses into space, but our "rocket" scientists need better rockets before we send humans plunging towards certain death on a mars mission. Things need to stop...oh...BLOWING UP AND OR GETTING LOST..... lets hope the x-33, x-34's come along nicely (which i believe they are)to pave the way towards better spaceships. Oh, hopefully mission to mars wont cheese, and give some of the sense of awe about the universe at least 1/10 as much as contact (yet another underappreciated movie) did. Yeah contact sucked, but armageddon was cool! please, sheep...
-
I could actually read this review, and it sounded like this guy actually knew what he was talking about. Too bad the movie sounds like a let-down.
-
...That comment is actually very ironic, since this is a Disney movie, and the title, "Mission to Mars" is the name of one of the first attractions at Disneyland/Walt Disney World. Housed at WDW in the building that now contains Lucas' ALIEN ENCOUNTER (cool attraction-check it out if you get a chance) Mission to Mars was a very early version of a simulator ride, like Star Tours and Back To The Future. You sat in a circular room, supposedly the interior of a rocket, and watched a screen on the floor in the center of the room as your "rocket" approached Mars. The seats would rumble and lights would flash. That's pretty much the extent of the show. Sounds like the movie took more than the name of the attraction. It also took the cheesy spirit.
-
I hate almost everything that De Palma has ever made. Case in point. Last week I
-
...after all, my babes in it... buwahahahahaha!!!!
-
I just had a gut feeling there WOULD be an alien in there somewhere. I wouldn't be the least be surprised if, with the exception of Cameron's two projects, EVERY single movie dealing with Mars will involve supernatural qualities. Mars is PLENTY interesting on its own without the intervention of extra terrestrials. Its an entirely new planet with gigantic canyons, enormous mountains, violent winds, and SHITLOADS of iron oxide. Why can't we take a setting like this and create an interesting story WITHOUT the fucking ETs? Its extremely unlikely that when we DO go to Mars, we will find any significance to the 'Face' on Mars, which is a smile on a dog, IMO, and its also unlikely there are intelligent lifeforms of any kind there or anywhere else in this solar system. All that aside, there is plenty to be said of the human element when we finally explore another world. The pure science of it alone is a bountiful premise for an entire SERIES of movies, let alone one two hour glimpse. We're selling the true nature of our existence short by telling tall tails.
-
It's sometimes hard to predict what will be the worst movie of the year, but I have figured out some sort of pattern that has developed recently...anytime there are two movies that come out in the same year with the same premise, then you can rest assured that both movies will SUCK! In 1997, the terrible twosome was the volcano movies. In '98 it was those damn asteroid/comet flicks. I think everyone here agrees on the quality of the haunted house movies of '99. So, with this pattern in mind, shouldn't we all realize to stay away from both MISSION TO MARS and RED PLANET? It seems so easy...
-
Saw the movie and loved it! In an age when every movie seems like an Aliens or Abyss ripoff, Mission to Mars gives us a different alternative. Y'all know all about the movie, so don't need to go there. My fave thing about the movie is that you never knew where it was going. The action scene we're all really exciting, especially the one with Tom Robbins. I was on the edge of my seat. Overall the movie was a cross between a thinking man's movie and a popcorn movie. I'd totally see it again!
-
Damn, they better not have a cute Disneyish alien in the movie. I'm really looking forward to this, but if they have some Lost In Space type alien I'm gonna puke. Oh well, I guess I'm just going to see this for the effects anyways. Vegas: good call on the bad movie trend.
-
Jeez, so that's why he hasn't written a book since 1996's Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas. Get back to the typewriter, man! Stop doing cameos in shitty summer flicks! Anyway, regarding My Computer's thoughts on aliens in sci-fi flicks, it is sad that only extraterrestrial contact can attract an audience to a picture. If anyone has read the Mars series of books by Kim Stanley Robinson, you'll know that an extremely engaging, suspenseful, and awe-inspiring story can be told about a Mars without alien life. Although it would take them 3 separate mini-series as long as Roots to do those books...
-
I saw M2M and let me tell you...it's one damn good movie! Ok, there is one tiny, slightly cheesy scene, but it's all gone and over so quickly...almost no one noticed it was even there. The acting is supurb, the FX blew me away and the plot was well developed. What more do you want?
GO SEE THIS MOVIE!! -
Man, I don't know what y'all are talking about! M2M was dope. Not a DePalma fan, but I thought this was one of his best movies of his career. The acting wasn't cheesy whatsoever. C'mon! With a cast of Tim Robbins, Gary Sinise, Jerry O'Connell and Cheade, it's impossible to go wrong! The FX were great. The sand storm sequence was well done! It was as if the FX were their own character! And Man, that space sequence! One of the most suspenseful action sequences I've seen in a movie in a long time! And just wondering... what kind of car was that at the party scene. It looked like an Isuzu, but wasn't sure. That car was so cool!
-
All you jokers, listen up>
Take
1/2cups Tim Robbins
2cups Don Cheadle
1tbs Gary Sinise
3 eggs(large)
1 1/2 tsp Jerry O'Connell
Kim Delaney to taste
Bring Tim, Don, and Gary to a boil. Sprinkle in Kim. Beat well with eggs and Jerry and make sure to garnish with cheese.
I love to enjoy this dish with friends and neighbors in the privacy of my own home. However, I had the most amazing experience when I snuk myself and my snack into a screening. THIS MOVIE F**KING ROCKS. STOP TAKING YOURSELVES SO SERIOUSLY AND JUST ENJOY THE MARSY COOL RIDE
-
I went to a screening and had no expectation whatsoever. So here's a totally candid review... I loved the way it began. Instead starting of with the mission, the film gave us a glimpse of the astronauts' lives, their families, hopes and dreams. It made them more human. Then we goto the mission, and already at this point there's more at stake because I actually care what happens to the characters. So when Tim Robbins dies, I was crushed. DePalma did an outstanding job trying to bring back a thinking man's scifi movie. FX were seamless. Overall the film was exciting and the ending was great. I loved the way the history of Mars was explained and agreed with Gary Sinise's decision to go with the alien. I walked out of the theater thinking about what I just saw, which to me, is what a good movie is suppose to do.
-
I loved Snake Eyes, except the ending, that was horrible, but the rest was great (up until the last 20 minutes or so), I loved the colors, Nicolas Cage was great and the setup was very 'cool', I loved 'Scarface', 'Dressed to Kill' and all the other DePalma films I've seen and I expect this one to be just as good.
-
Feb 24, 2000 5:26:59 PM CST
Hi! Yeah? This message is for the marketing guy who keeps postin
by alexandra dupont
.... I could waste a lot of time deconstructing the brilliant, condescending sameness of all your reviews, marketing guy, but I have better things to do with my time, like breathe. Suffice to say: (a) You
-
I think "RipReaver" and "My Computer" (above) had some good things to say. I look on Science Fiction films, and especially near-future Space Exploration ones like 2001, Deep Impact, Contact, and, presemably, MTM as advertising for what will be the greatest human endeavor - the conquest of space. It's something we will need to do, to further scientific knowledge, gain new resources (Mars will be our gateway to the mineral wealth of the asteroid belt, some day), and to ensure the survival of the specie (like for example to prevemt us from getting waxed by a massive asteroid.)
Anyhow, when a shitty, ridiculous, bad-science, poorly written and acted SF film comes out I think it trivializes a very improtant issue and makes people less likely to support an efort that takes a great deal of committment of money, effort and time.I'd like to see films that do give us a sense of glory and wonder at the exploration of space and also portray it in a relatively realistic fashion. I like to think that good SF films, as well as being great entertainment, are a powerful tool to encourage interst in space exploration and committment of effort, investment and resources. -
Are we having some personal problems here people??? Looks like Alexandra the Great has too much time on HER hands! LOL
I haven't seen this flick yet so I can't add to the controversy but I love DePalma so I'm seeing it for sure. I don't care if the movie sucks or is the second coming.... -
Feb 24, 2000 7:11:42 PM CST
Mission One in PR: Tell lies. Mission Two: Discredit the opposit
by alexandra dupont
Do please note that it
-
Can someone please tell me why Brian De palma who I think is a pretty good director, seem to be doing shit like this?
I mean this is all just cheesy crap!
(ala Armageddon!)
Sentimental, travelling into space to visit/ destroy something and some of the crew dying in the process and therefore hoping to pull at the audiences heart strings!
and having a REALLY cheesy ending
ENOUGH ALREADY!
Can't the brains of Hollywood think of a new concept. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!! -
Harry let some asshole get ahold of my PERSONAL email adddy. I would have thought a bit more out of this site. Guess I was wrong. Unless you want some PSYCHO emailing you about your personal opinion, DO NOT POST. Harry....I'm disappointed.
-
Let's face it, as planets go, mars is about as interesting and mysterious as Cleveland. No impenetrable cloud cover, no giant red spot, not even RINGS! Why we would waste our time (and money) going to this dud of a planet, even in movie form, is beyond me. Mars is nothing but the moon painted red. Get over it.
Now Uranus; that's worth looking into. -
Kim Stanley Robinsons Mars series of novels. Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars. Those are Mars films that NEED to get made! Unfortuneately there are very few capable writers who could adapt them properly.
-
Alexandra's political views are beautifully written and unmistakably to the point. The positive reviews are so blatantly transparent and typical of the "treat your audience like idiots" mentality. Zathras looked forward to Supernova, despite the advance tales of rewrites, largely due to the short "cool" trailer that showed on TV, but then Zathras saw a longer trailer on a video release that made it look like total garbage. Similarly, Zathras had no knowledge of M2M and assumed it was to be a reality-based movie. After seeing yet more CHEESY, yes CHEESY underdeveloped CGI effects, Zathras has lost much interest in this movie and will await Red Planet with interest.
Maybe the reviewer should post under the names Ron Brewington or Paul Wunder.
All Hail THE ONE -
All the "titties" comments made about "Reindeer Games" -- I'm surprised nobody brought it up here -- so Armin Mueller-Stahl has a few hard-to-understand lines in "Mars"; but does he display his, ahem, "titties"?
-
I agree wholeheartedly with Clavius that RED MARS, BLUE MARS, and GREEN MARS, by Kim Stanley Robinson, would make an excellent trilogy of movies. Its a very accurate pseudo-documentary of what it would be like to colonize Mars and ADAPT it to earth-like conditions. Mission to Mars is makes light of what myself and many others consider to be an important chapter in the future history of humankind. Mars offers us a stepping stone further beyond the cradle of Earth. It is rich in hydrogen at its poles, which can be used in chemical propulsion. And its geology offers many answers to some ancient scientific questions: Did life, even simple life, exist on Mars? (Even simple fossilized evidence would totally shake the foundations of modern theology AND science.) What caused Mars to 'shut down' and become a dead planet? Could Mars support an energy efficient human colony?
Mars isn't about Hollywood aliens and personal human drama, people. It is a possible resting ground for some of our oldest questions. -
Casualties of war was a very underrated film. And so was Carlito's Way, what a god damn underrated masterpiece that film was. I never understood why the film bombed. I didn't like Snake Eyes, but maybe that could be because I was an extra on the set and the guy acted like such an asshole towards us! But the opening shot of Cage was great.
-
Sure, its dated, but you know, try a little "suspension of disbelief" sometimes and its really an enjoyable film. I'd rather watch this again than see "Mission Mars."
-
Looks like there might be oceans on Europa...thats fucking unbelievably amazing...The Great Collective Ass (the whole world as opposed to the simple aicn collective ass) doesnt care. imagine we get a probe drilled into the surface with a camera and fucking fish swim by? not just fish, but fucking fish. or even but-fucking fish.
-
The reviews on this site have been wrong or biased so many times, Harry should keep a tally of reviews, reviewers and the film's final outcome to guide readers as they as they read these so-called reviews. If you read Entertainment Weekly you can see which reviewer liked which other films and that gives you something to judge their review by. The same should be done on AICN. I am still going to see this film because, damn it, I am excited to see it based on the trailer and what it appears to be about. It could be another forgettable movie like Pitch Black, but I hope it is not.
-
I worked on some of the graphics for the trailer and downloaded the new trailer from missiontomars.movies.com to see how the final cut came out, and there's this cheesy-ass alien! Looked like something from a video game, complete with a 3-D hologram display of the solar system VERY reminiscent of the planetarium scene at Red XIII's grandfather's place in Final Fantasy VII! I saw the rough cut before where the actors were standing against bluescreen, and hoped that there'd be something cool there, but I guessed wrong. Kind of disappointing after I almost killed myself pulling an all-nighter to get the graphics on film for Touchstone. I'd like a crack at that alien, dammit...
-
Ever I tell ya! Um, no?
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 419 total posts 209 posts
- WTF HOLLYWOOD: SOLARBABIES -- 131 total posts 129 posts
- Herc’s Seen Tonight’s Return Of THE WALKING DEAD!! Discuss Also DOWNTON ABBEY, FEAR FACTOR, PAN AM, ONCE, SIMPSONS, DYNAMITE, LUCK, SHAMELESS, BAIT CAR, THE GRAMMYS And More!! Sunday Is Sweeps Day 11!! -- 123 total posts 122 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 124 total posts 58 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 191 total posts 47 posts
- Avid Comic Reader Hercules Does Battle With Tedium During Kevin Smith’s COMIC BOOK MEN! -- 43 total posts 43 posts
- If the Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day drops her pen, pick it up, but don’t look at her legs or else it will be on your record. -- 60 total posts 42 posts
- I am The Behind the Scenes Pics of the Day! No, I’m the Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day! -- 27 total posts 27 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 506 total posts 26 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 77 total posts 24 posts